“Profitability is good to chase, but hard to achieve,” Elizabeth Mbau said back in May, on a call from Costa Rica. In April, Mbau joined our team as the Africa coordinator for Volcafe Way, bringing with her experience from Technoserve, where she monitored a coffee initiative in Kenya; the Rainforest Alliance, where she oversaw the impact of a certification program…
“I got in touch with the IWCA chapter here in Guatemala, called Mujeres en Café, and I started talking to Celeste Fumagalli, who was then the president. We started talking, and we arranged a field trip for all the producers to learn about the Volcafe Way.” Maria Renee Morales, assistant manager at Peter Schoenfeld, GO’s sister company in Guatemala, recently…
Riley Thomson is based in San Jose and, after years in the field as a farmer support technician, now oversees the Volcafe Way Farmer Support Organization (FSO) in Costa Rica—a country he moved to as a boy, from Canada. Riley attended Costa Rica’s prestigious Earth University, which focuses on providing its global student body with sustainable-agriculture expertise they can apply…
When women are involved — particularly, when women are board members or are in leadership roles, and especially when there are at least three of them — companies do better. They make more money, produce better products and they’re better places to work. A growing body of data has proven this out. In coffee communities in Tanzania and elsewhere, our farmer support teams have likewise…
Dirk Sickmueller, general manager at Taylor Winch Coffee Ltd., GO's sister company in Nairobi, selected our incoming Kenyan coffees. We asked him what to expect, how the harvest was and what his favorites are. Dirk Sickmueller: At Taylor Winch, I work with a team, and our main task is to trade green coffee beans from Kenya. We cup coffees, and I’m at auction every week,…
“I find a bit of excitement in telling other people about my country, and letting them know what it is we do here and what Honduras has achieved in the last three or four years,” says Carlos Umanzor, with Genuine Origin sister company Molinos de Honduras (MDH), when asked about his favorite part of his job. “Because, these aren't like other…
Matthew Harrison has a background in agriculture. And while he’s spent extensive time in the coffee fields, he now lives in the coastal city of Dar es Salaam, focusing on field operations and the trading side of the business for GO sister organization Taylor Winch. Last week, he stepped away from the cupping table to chat about coffee, culture and why there’s…
Coffee is a real opportunity for farmers in Uganda, and with assistance from Volcafe Way Farmer Support Organizations, they’re producing some of the country’s best coffees to date. In this conversation, Anneke Fermont, regional sustainability manager at Kyagalanyi (pronounced CHUG-uh-lani) Coffee, Genuine Origin’s sister organization in Uganda, describes finding meaningful work, efforts to end child labor, and the two carefully…
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We talk to Adrian about his favorite brewing tips and get his secret for a tasty homebrew
Decaffeinating
The process of removing caffeine from green, unroasted coffee beans using direct or indirect chemical solvent exposure, liquid carbon dioxide in a high-pressure chamber, or water alone (the Swiss method).
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